God filled

Whenever you find tears in your eyes, especially unexpected tears, it is well to pay the closest attention. They are not only telling you something about the secret of who you are, but more often than not God is speaking to you through them of the mystery of where you have come from and is summoning you to where, if your soul is to be saved, you should go next.

Frederick Buchner, Whistling in the Dark

I came across this quote a few weeks ago and have been pondering it since.

I am keen to be done with this transitioning phase that seems to have gone on for too long as I move from one ministry to another. It is painful and difficult and, though also filled with conviction and affirmation, I would just as soon be over it!

I often find tears in my eyes. And though, at times, they might not be surprising, at others,they are unpredictable and inconvenient. They are rarely around when I create space but always in the midst of activity.

When I contemplate Beuchner's words, I am struck most by the phrase " the secret of who you are". 

It seems that this transition is about confronting a change in identity, moving from a role so wrapped up in a community to a more diverse, peripatetic  role whose peculiarities I have not yet defined far less mastered. The sense of belonging that brought security seems eroded at every turn no matter how good a fit the new role is.

It feels as though I've responded to the summons of where I should go next but I'm still wrestling with the mystery of where I've come from and the lessons learned there. And doing all this alongside forging a new path, a new identity a new way of being in Christ.

Luke 18:34

But they understood nothing about all these things; in fact, what he said was hidden from them, and they did not grasp what was said.

When Jesus tried to speak to the disciples of what lay ahead, of the road to Jerusalem and his suffering and death, they could not understand. The things of which Jesus spoke were beyond human understanding and foreign to all that they knew or could envisage.

Perhaps I should stop being surprised by the tears and continue forging the way of transition, a journey that won't be hurried, filled with tasks that can't be ignored, in the hope that, along the way, the mystery will be revealed. And give thanks for God's companionship on the road.

Second chances

Luke 13:1-9

Repent or Perish

At that very time there were some present who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. He asked them, “Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were worse sinners than all other Galileans? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish as they did. Or those eighteen who were killed when the tower of Siloam fell on them—do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others living in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish just as they did.”

The Parable of the Barren Fig Tree

Then he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it and found none. So he said to the gardener, ‘See here! For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and still I find none. Cut it down! Why should it be wasting the soil?’ He replied, ‘Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig around it and put manure on it. If it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.’ ”

Repentance is not a once for all effort - if takes a life time.

To truly realign how we think about God, about Gods world, about the children of God, is not painless and is not easy but involves a drastic re-orientation of ourselves in relation to God.

It affects the way we approach all of life - and death.

Repentance also brings the ability, in the face of disaster, to know confidence in God as the source and the sustainer of all life.

To accept the randomness and cruelty that life sometimes brings.

But to know the presence of God - in ALL of life.

Even in the face of disaster we are upheld by the calm assurance that God is present - not averting disaster, not protecting Gods own, but bringing hope into the most desperate situations.

Bringing hope that, though we live in such turmoil, though disaster might strike at any moment, our hope is in God - the God who ensures that there is more - the God who calls us to be instruments of the hope that persists even in the bleakness of today's world and today's news.

Repentance involves not just a change of heart and of mind but also a change in how we live and how we act with that changed perspective.

Repentance brings a call to join in Gods mission to bring justice and peace to all the world.

To change the bad news by living the good news.

So, as we reflect on all the bad news that we have heard this week, on all the images we have seen on TV, on all that we have read in newspapers, our question is not: Why, God, Why? But, How, God, How?

How can we bring change?

How can we relieve suffering?

How can we work for justice in our time?

Our repentance arises, not out of fear or guilt but out of the awareness of God at work, even in the midst of suffering.

And the difference that repentance brings is the ability to see how God might use us to change the story - from bad news to good news.

That story that Jesus tells, after speaking of repentance, the story of the fig tree that won't bear fruit, that the owner wants to cut down.

The fig tree that is saved because the gardener pleads for it, promising to pay it special attention.

That story speaks to me of second chances.

Second chances that come, not by simply letting fate takes its course, but by intervention.

If the fig tree is to survive the next visit of the owner, it is going to take a lot of hard work on the part of the gardener to ensure that it does bear fruit.

It will take time and investment to make sure the fig tree is turned around.

God calls us to hard work.

To the hard work of second chances.

To the hard work of intervention, changing what we can- to make a difference for others.

To give others their second chance.

God calls us to a ministry of second chances.

To a ministry that bears fruit.

When we have turned around, we can be the means by which the Good News gets the better of all the bad news.

Repentance and second chances.

Gods good news for us today.

Go - and live out the gospel.

Thanks be to God.

Invitation

Isaiah 55:1-2

An Invitation to Abundant Life

Ho, everyone who thirsts,

come to the waters;

and you that have no money,

come, buy and eat!

Come, buy wine and milk

without money and without price.

Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread,

and your labor for that which does not satisfy?

Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good,

and delight yourselves in rich food.

An invitation 

to life

Abundant life

Life that is filled

with good things

with plenty

An invitation

to rest

and renewal

to stop striving

and receive

in grace

An invitation

to accept

the abundant life

that is God's will

for all God's children

An invitation

awaiting acceptance.

The things we do not see

Philippians 4:10-13

Acknowledgment of the Philippians’ Gift

I rejoice in the Lord greatly that now at last you have revived your concern for me; indeed, you were concerned for me, but had no opportunity to show it. Not that I am referring to being in need; for I have learned to be content with whatever I have. I know what it is to have little, and I know what it is to have plenty. In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of being well-fed and of going hungry, of having plenty and of being in need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

The mystery of being part of the church, the body of Christ goes beyond our imaginations. Sometimes, without our knowledge, prayer is being offered and God is at work in our lives, visibly and invisibly.

Such is the joy and responsibility of being part of that body. If this is true for us, it is also true for others. Think of the difference we might make by praying for one another, not out of desperation or when crisis comes, but simply praying, as a matter of course, with no agenda, no specific request, but simply to remember before God our brothers and sisters in Christ.

It doesn't take a prayer warrior to invoke the blessing of God just some quiet and some intentional prayer - just because.

Authority

Mark 11:27-28

Jesus’ Authority Is Questioned

Again they came to Jerusalem. As he was walking in the temple, the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders came to him and said, “By what authority are you doing these things? Who gave you this authority to do them?”

We seize on authority

As though that lent authenticity

We give credence and power

to "officialdom"

Failing to notice

that innovation

seldom emanates

from the courts of establishment.

Spontaneity is denigrated

while adhering to the rules is elevated

Yet few who stuck to the rules

managed to change the world

Jesus, beloved child of God

knew a different authority

and moved to a different rhythm

than those around him.

And so he was silenced

for daring to sow seeds of corruption

in those who followed him.

Still, today, that kind of Maverick

is viewed with suspicion

treated with contempt

but may yet be

the one who reveals most clearly

the very nature of God.

Bread of compassion

Matthew 15:32-33

Feeding the Four Thousand

Then Jesus called his disciples to him and said, “I have compassion for the crowd, because they have been with me now for three days and have nothing to eat; and I do not want to send them away hungry, for they might faint on the way.” The disciples said to him, “Where are we to get enough bread in the desert to feed so great a crowd?”

Lord, as if you could ever send anyone away hungry,

The crowds came out to hear you,

followed you wherever you were

Their minds were fed

with all they could take

and more

But you worried not just about their souls

but about their bodies.

You filled them Spiritually 

and wanted to ensure

that their physical needs

were also met.

And still you see

each one

as a whole person

body, mind and spirit

and long to care 

fully

and wholly

for all our needs today.

Writ large

2 Corinthians 3:1-3

Ministers of the New Covenant

Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Surely we do not need, as some do, letters of recommendation to you or from you, do we? You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, to be known and read by all; and you show that you are a letter of Christ, prepared by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.

A living testament

Writ large in human hearts

Flesh and bone

wrought by the Spirit

Shaped and fashioned

to be a beacon of hope

signalling new life

and new beginnings

and new possibilities

through Christ.

What a legacy.

What a trail to blaze.

Letters of Christ

written in the Spirit.

Glory to God!